Bugs, Bits, and Boys of All Ages

by David Luttenberger

When I'm around great packaging, I admit that I turn into a giddy geek. My wife's version of the story is I act like a little boy who finds a morbid joy in zapping ants with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. Which is likely why I connected so quickly with the Little Learners Bug Catcher—I immediately "got it," unlike Tom Hanks' character, Josh Baskin, in the hit movie comedy Big.

The Little Learners Bug Catcher turns into a highly functional toy after the dirt and bug candy are consumed, and kids "get it" right away on the shelf.

The plot line of Big has Josh being granted his wish to become an adult. The rub is that he retains the mentality and actions of a pre-teen boy. When Josh lands a sweet job at a toy company, he says he doesn't "get it" when his mature adult coworker unveils a prototype toy that converts from a building to a robot and back again. "What's fun about that?" quizzes Josh.

Josh wouldn't have that problem with Little Learners Bug Catcher. Its primary counter-top POP appeal is neon green worms and fire-engine red ants flexo printed on a transparent PVC shrink label. It is also immediately obvious to any adolescent boy worth the mud caked under his fingernails that the gummy worms and ants packed inside are digging their way through a mash of chocolate cookie meal "dirt."

But what really puts the food-grade PET container over the top is its polypropylene lid into which not one, but two hinged magnifying glasses are encased. After consuming the spade-shovel portion of "dirt" in one overstuffed mouthful and playing with and then eating the worms and ants, the container becomes a holding pen for bugs, grubs, spiders, and sundry other Fear Factor fare. The two integrated hard plastic magnifying glasses allow for hours of in-container examination or up-close, monocle-like viewing of said captured creepy-crawly things or whatever else in the yard, garage, or bathroom sink that requires 20x magnification. Oh heck yes, I get it!

Positioned in the burgeoning interactive/novelty food category, this confectionary treat is the brainchild of candy industry veteran turned packaging neophyte Gary Evans—the "Captain" on board Captain Muddy's Tasty Treats ship. Captain Muddy's is a St. Petersburg, FL, marketer and distributor of co-packed products.

The Little Learners line also includes the Bug Tube, and these are sold at Toys R Us, Albertsons, a variety of national convenience stores, and soon at Target, Wal-Mart, and CVS and Walgreen's. According to Cap'n Gary, Little Learners is a Captain Muddy's original product.

The package, designed in-house by first mate Tara Jacobsen, director of R&D, is manufactured in China and shipped back to the U.S. to be filled at HAACP- and ISO 9000-approved filling facilities - a point of pride for the Cap'n. "A real marketing plus," Evans says, for the time when his plans for exporting materialize.

After Josh Baskin is pressed to elaborate why he doesn't "get it" to the toy developers, he asks naively: "Well, couldn't it be like a robot that turns into something like a bug or something?" While there's a storm of controversy regarding whether to market products in the interactive-novelty category as food or toys, Cap'n Gary says there's no arguing with the rate Little Learners is being plucked from store shelves. Kids immediately "get" this package that, between bites and bugs, earns a definite "Wow!" designation from boys of all ages.

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses. He can be reached at (610) 436-4220 (ext. 18) or dluttenberger@packstrat.com